WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic lawmakers have introduced a measure to remove Confederate statues from the U.S. Capitol.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and California Rep. Barbara Lee introduced the measure Thursday in the House and Senate.
The lawmakers proposed the Confederate Monument Removal Act after the violence in Charlottesville. There are now statues of Gen. Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and about 10 other Confederate figures in the National Statuary Hall Collection.
Booker says the statues belong in a museum where they can be put into proper historical context. He says they are “painful” symbols of “bigotry and hate” and go against the goal of making the Capitol a place for “all Americans to come and feel welcomed.”
States would be able to reclaim the statues, or they’d be given to the Smithsonian.
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